Narendra Modi’s attention to the woes and plight of farmers during election campaigning has raised a lot of hope for improvement among members of the beleaguered community, but can he deliver? Devinder Sharma presents an 11-point prescription for turning the agricultural sector around.

Seeds of doubt
The effect of GM crops on food, agriculture and farmers continues to be highly controversial, polarising scientists and policy-makers alike.
Darryl D'Monte
outlines some of the recent turns in the debate to show that the truth, perhaps, lies somewhere in between.

"Only the idiots are committing suicide"
In Chhatisgarh's Durg district, there is no shortage of farmers who have taken their lives - the district ranks second in the state on this count. But
equally, there is no shortage of those who don't see these suicides.
Shubhranshu Choudhary
reports.

CAG report slams Vidarbha waiver package
The Comptroller and Auditor General's audit of relief packages for Vidarbha's farmers finds that
they were tardy in implementation, mindless in conceptualisation and
"inconsistent with local
needs." The state government has skirted debate.
Jaideep Hardikar
on the indictment.

Steep health costs pushing farmers to the brink
Rising health costs are proving disastrous for Vidarbha's
farmers already under severe distress. Debt
due to spiraling medical
expenditures is worse than the illness itself for many, and the
state government's health infrastructure is not helping, reports
Jaideep Hardikar.

Our food, our farmers
The Association for Indias Development (AID) celebrated Gandhi Jayanti (2 October) this year
with an Our Food, Our Farmers global vigil organised at 18 locations across India and 39
locations in the United States. An IN-PICTURES feature.

When the one who dies is a woman
Are the pressures which make male farmers commit suicide the same for women farmers as well? Socially, legally, with respect to property rights, and
given their family positions, women are placed in situations strikingly different from those of men.
Aparna Pallavi
reports.

Life on credit, death in installments
Four years, three men, one family. The tragedy unleashed by the agrarian crisis on
the family of Deshmukhs in Katyar village of Vidarbha isnt vanishing.
Jaideep Hardikar
reports.

Empty fields stare at farm widows
In Vidarbha, widowed women farmers have been hit hard by lack of viable farm credit. Quite a lot of women find themselves unable to carry out
farm work in the absence of credit. Caught between fear and despair, their options are limited.
Aparna Pallavi
reports.

Vidarbha's one-litre-per-cow package
By the Maharashtra government's own count, the 14,221 high-breed cows it gave farmers in Vidarbha add just 1.16 litres each to the milk collection
in the region. These cows have cost already indebted farmers over Rs.7.5 crore.
P Sainath
reports.

Weaving a life in Anantapur
Families left behind by farmers who committed suicide face up to the odds, fighting for survival so that the next generation might do better. As
one farm widow puts it, "it is all for the children, sir. Our time has gone".
P Sainath
reports.

And meanwhile in Vidarbha
There have been some 250 farm suicides in just the first three months of this year. Things could be a lot worse after June. And, as always, the farm
suicides are a symptom of the crisis, not its cause. They are its outcome, not its engine,
writes
P Sainath.

Cooking numbers as agri-volcano builds up
Using a deviously devised method, Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh
is claiming that 75 per cent of Vidarbha farmer suicides are not due to
indebtedness at all. Meanwhile, the toll has crossed 250 this year and is rising.
Jaideep Hardikar
reports.